We picked up 6 new species since update #4: Ring-necked Pheasant, White-breasted Nuthatch, and American Tree Sparrow on the Miramichi CBC, Dec. 20, and Northern Saw-whet Owl, Pine Siskin, and Belted Kingfisher on Dec. 22 and 23. Our twenty-seven-day total now stands at 52 species or about 84% of our goal of 62 species in order to break the old record of 61.

Some possible species that are still missing from this year’s list are Glaucous Gull, Northern Shrike, Barred Owl, Great Horned Owl, Horned Lark, Lapland Longspur, Boreal Chickadee, Northern Goshawk, Merlin, Canada Goose, Northern Pintail, Song Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Red Crossbill, and White-winged Crossbill. Reports of any of these would be very welcome as would more unusual ones not mentioned.